Ruud Takes Out Defending Champ Baez To Make Estoril SFs; Thiem Falls

In Estoril, Portugal, at the Millennium Estoril Open in quarterfinals action top seeded Casper Ruud steamrolled (22y,33r) the 5th-seeded Sebastian Baez 6-3, 6-0.

Ruud, the 2-time Grand Slam finalist, was broken once whole breaking serve five times in the match.

Ruud took the final nine games of the contest and won the last seven points.

“It was great, particularly the second set, it was a great level by me,” Ruud said. “Very happy and pleased with that.

“Sebastian is a tough player. The score can sometimes lie a little bit. 6-3, 6-0 is not necessarily how it felt on court. But that’s tennis, small margins in this sport and when you have the margins on your side.”

Baez slips to 0-5 against Top 5 players. This was a first time tour-level collision between the two.

Ruud reaches his 25th career semifinal and his very first of the season. Baez drops to 0-5 against Top 5 players.

Ruud will now face Quentin Halys in the semifinals. Halys ousted Austria’s Dominic Thiem 6-1, 6-4.

Marco Cecchinato bounced the 3rd-seeded Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 7-5, 7-6(7-5). The Argentine scored the first break of the match to win the first, then reached his 10th career semifinal by taking the second set in a break after failing to serve it out at 5-3, 40-30.

Cecchinato will now face No. 6 Miomir Kecmanovic who moved past Bernabe Zapata Miralles 7-5, 6-2.

Tomorrow, Ruud took his sole meeting Halys in the 2018 Australian Open first round.

Kecmanovic is also 1-0 against Cecchinato winning at 2022 Santiago.